InnerWorkings Signs $45 Million Client Deal, Reveals Q2 Results

One Of The Largest Agreements In Company's History

In one of the largest agreements in the company's history, Top 40 distributor InnerWorkings (asi/168860) has engineered a new partnership with a food and beverage company that's estimated to result in $45 million in annual spending. As part of the deal, InnerWorkings will manage printed communication materials, branded promotional products, sales promotions, BTL agencies, events, sponsorships and expenses related to other marketing service providers for Mondelēz Brazil.

The Chicago-based distributor will devote 15 employees to supporting Mondelēz, whose current suppliers will have the chance to continue supporting the company through InnerWorkings. "We continue to add new blue-chip clients in many regions around the world, as evidenced most recently by the new commitment from Mondelēz," said Eric D. Belcher, CEO of InnerWorkings, and a member of Counselor's Power 50.

The deal with Mondelēz was announced late last week as InnerWorkings also revealed its second quarter financials. Overall, revenue in the period rose to $210.9 million, up from $201.4 million in the same quarter the previous year – a 4.7% increase. Still, GAAP diluted earnings per share were down from $0.09 to $0.04 during the comparative periods, in part due to the loss of some business from a significant client. "As expected, this wasn't a particularly strong quarter by our standards," said Joseph M. Busky, InnerWorkings' chief financial officer. "However, we expect growth will accelerate in the second half of the year due to recent new enterprise wins, contributions from acquisitions, and the overall seasonality of our business."

In addition to the Mondelēz deal, those wins include new client agreements with a large publisher, as well as with a Fortune 1000 financial services firm. "Our multinational clients are taking advantage of our new global scale by expanding with us into additional markets," says Belcher. "This is a trend we expect will drive significant long-term growth for us."

With reported North American promotional products sales of $114.1 million, InnerWorkings ranks 12th on Counselor's 2013 list of the advertising specialty industry's largest distributors. The company's 2012 revenue tally was up 8.4% from the prior year. Over the last five years, InnerWorking has increased its promotional products revenue by 34.2%.